Laird Cagan

Laird Q. Cagan is Managing Director and co-founder of Silicon Valley-based Cagan McAfee Capital Partners, LLC, a private investment firm he founded in 1990.  He has been actively involved in over 40 high-growth companies over the past 30 years, as investor, founder, board member, and CEO in a variety of industries including, Energy, CleanTech, FinTech, NanoTech, MedTech, Healthcare, Information Technologies, Payments and Water.  He recently acquired FloShield, Inc., a medical device for laparoscopic surgery, sold globally and moved manufacturing to China where he developed a joint venture for sales in mainland China.  He has taken over 10 of those companies public and has traditionally continued on the board of those companies.  Over $1B of equity capital and $2B of debt/JV capital has been invested in those companies.

Mr. Cagan previously worked in M&A at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Drexel Burnham Lambert.  In all, he was involved in over 30 transactions valued at more than $15 billion, bankruptcy work-out transactions of more than $2 billion, and a variety of equity, high-yield bond and senior debt financings. 

Mr. Cagan attended M.I.T. and received a BS, MS and MBA from Stanford University.  He is also a graduate of the UCLA Board of Director’s program and he took time to earn a two-year, part-time MA degree in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica for personal growth and to advance leadership skills.  He is the founding Chairman of the SF Bay Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization, is a founder and Chairman of the San Francisco Chapter of the World Presidents’ Organization and is the Chair of the San Francisco Group of Tiger 21, a global network of Ultra High Net Worth Investors focused on successfully managing personal wealth. He and his wife founded and run the Stand4Lyme Foundation, teaming with The Stanford Lyme Working Group which they helped initiate at the Stanford Medical School.  An avid athlete, he played varsity soccer at Stanford and continues to enjoy soccer, tennis, golf and skiing.  In 2004, Mr. Cagan’s team won the Veteran’s Cup, over-40 Soccer National Championship and in 2012 his team won the over-50 National Championship.  He is a former member of the Stanford University Athletic Board, an inductee to Stanford Associates for his volunteer efforts at Stanford and is honored to have the Laird Q. Cagan Stadium at Stanford named after him.